Improvement in adjustable dials for travelers  watches



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

EDWINJ tins HULEEET, OE PORTLAND, CONNECTICUT, AND N. AUBIN, or MONTREAL, CANADA.

IMPROVEMENT IN ADJUSTABLE DIALS FOR TRAVELERS WATCHES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 99,902, dated February l5. 1870.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EDWIN JAMES HUL- BERT, of Portland, in the county of -Middlesex, State of Connecticut, and AIME NICHOLAS NAPOLEON AUBIN, of Albany, State of New York, temporarily residing at Montreal, Dominion of Canada, have inventedan Improved N Vatch, which we call Travelers Chronometer, of which the following is a specification.

The nature and object of our invention consist in so constructing the dial of a Watch that the hour of the place of residence of the owner, and that of each of the principal places through which he may travel in an eastern or a western' direction, are very simply and plainly indicated without disturbing the hands of said watch, nor making any mental .calculation to ascertain the relative time at the different localities.

We obtain the above result by inscribing upon the surface of a segment of a iiat ring, attached to the part of the watch'bearing the Wheel-work and hands, thenames of the principal cities on a particular line of travel, and in such positions corresponding with their respective longitude, combined with a dial, on which are inscribed the hours and minutes, and provided with a slit or hole, through which such name alone can .be read, While the home-time can be read, as usual, upon the ordinary dial. s

Several modifications canbe devised in the relative arrangement of the essential parts; but we will indicate the construction which seems to us the most advantageous, as it does not interfere with the wheel-work as usually manufactured, and preserves the position of the iigures with the pendant of the Watch, thus facilitating the prompt reading ofthe waytime.

In the accompanying drawings the iigures are on an enlarged scale for greater clearness. Figure l is a plan of the watch-dial when at place of residence, supposed to be New York. Fig. 2 is a plan of the same when at Chicago. Fig. 3 is a planof the traveling time-dial. eFi g. et is a plan of the plate bearing the names of cities. Fig. 5 is a section of the same plate. Fig. 6 is a perpendicular section through the center and pendant of the watch, showing the relative position of the above parts. In the last iigure the shaded lines indicate a section ofthe case and of the parts xed to it. The lines-not. shaded indicate the movable parts.

A is the watch-case. B is the pendant. C is the milled head of a pin bearing a geared pinion, to rotate the plate bearing the wheelwork, the hands, the home-dial, and names of places; D, hour-hand; E, minute-hand; F,

way-time dial f, oblong hole cut into the waytime dial at the twelve-o clock mark, through which can be read the name of any place inscribed on the longitude-segment, when such name is brought in a line with the said hole; G, home-time dial, concentric with the-waytime dial, and attached tothe upper plate of the wheel-work by means of the vset-screw g. g is a semicircular or longer slit to admit the set-screw g and allow the adjustment of the twelve-o clock mark of the home-dial opposite any city in which the owner of the watch may reside; H, way-ring; h h 7L, independent segment of a ring, on which can be inscribed any number of cities situated upon a certain line of travel, and at such distances from each other as their relative longitude.

Railroad and navigation companies, army or navy officers, or ordinary travelers can insert them or exchange them for such as they may find. convenient for a particular voyage. Thus segments adapted for each line of railroad, for the Middle or Southern States, the British Provinces, or principal cities of Europe, or other points of the globe, can be attached in the simplest manner to our watch by any person. It is held in place by a pin, h', and spring h, or in any other method.

On the edge or under surface, h3, of the wayplate we cut teeth to gear with the pinion c, inserted in the pendant-stem or in any other part of the watch-case.v This allows the traveler, by merely turning the milled head C, to bring the naines of cities through which he proceeds, either east or west of his home, successively under the hole f, and thus to ascertain the local time without opening thcwatch or disturbing the hands, which continue to indicate the home -time on the smaller dial. Then he returns home, the two dials, of course, agree, and indicate the same hour.

In our drawings we have indicated the waytime in divisions of iive minutes; but when, manufactured by regular dial -makcrs, with the nice mechanical means of exactsubdivision which they possess, smaller fractions could be indicated. An additional gearing might be attached to our minute-hand for the waytime; but this would nsclessly complicate an in volition i'or which we claim eXtreme simplicity.

To use our improved watch requires no mental effort or careful scanning of figures and intricate namesT as the name of only one place is visible at a time, and no change in the hands is elfcctcd.- The way-dial which the traveler has to consult more frequently while away from home is in the usual relative position with the pendant of the watch.

W'e do not conne ourselves to any precise position of the dials, but have indicated such as seem to us the most easily understood and used. Many modifications might be suggested. Thus merely inscribing the names of cities on an ordinary watch-dial and enameling or engraving the hours on a movable watch-crystal would constitute for a travelerswatch a good equivalent of the more convenient, perfect7 and artistic arrangement we have described.

The watch being constructed, substantially as described, its use is most simple. If the traveler does not desire to ascertain the time of any particular place of residence, and merely desires lto know theWay-time, he has only to bring the naine ofthe city in which he has regulated his watch under the hole f, and then by bringing other naines, either veast or West of that locality, he has the Way-time; but if he desire to have afterward both the home and.

way time, he fixes the twelve-o7 clock figure of the home-time dial opposite the name of the city he in habits and opposite the hole f, so that the hours on both dials correspond. This adjustment can remain thus as long as he considers the same city his home. lVhen traveling, he obtains the way-timebylnoving the inilled'head C so as to bring way localities opposite the hole f. In the drawings the home is supposedto be New York and the way-time that of Chicago. Both hands indicate on the home-dial fteen minutes past one, and on the way-dial the hour-hand indicates twenty minutes past twelve o7 clock, there being a diierence of fifty-five minutes between the two cities.

What we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, isv 1. In watches more particularly intended for travelers, the dial I1`,having a hole, f, through which can be read the name of one of the places of which it is desired to ascertain the time, and on which are inscribed ordinary hgures indicating the hour and minutes.

2. The detachable segment hh, on which the names of cities and places are inscribed,'the

Whole constructed and operated substantially as herein set forth. EDWIN JAMES HULBERT.

v N.V AUBIN. Witnesses to Ed. J. vHulberts signature:

ARTHUR W. BACQN, GHAs. G. R. VINAL. Witnesses to N. Aubins signature:

GEO. A. MATILE, S. M. PooL. 

